also, something that never occurred to me when i was young and listening to them for the first time, is that the singer (Sonya Aurora Maden or summat) sounds exactly like a lady version of Morrissey...andyone else agree, or is it just me?

Louise from sleeper seemed to go from being everyone's favourite to the most annoying woman in indie-rock in the blink of an eye. Remember seeing sleeper at the venue in new cross and not expecting them to go anywhere... then seeing them on the chart show a few weeks later.

Sonya Echobelly was always just boring, was she not?

I think the whole cult of brit-pop turned bands that could have been alright into terrible pop bands trying to write proper pop songs and failing.

I used to love Gary Crowley's radio show on a sunday - at one point he used to make things like the first couple of dodgy singles sound like they were really exciting, somehow. Black Metallic by Catherine Wheel as well - remember that winning one of his listener vote things and being, well, quite excited by the state of music at the time. strange really!